Saturday, February 23, 2008

It's not a pinata, but it's still pretty sweet.

Oh, pinatas. Often I think back on the pinata brief, fondly of course. Such good times, so many laughs. [A video montage of my feelings on this matter would be set to the song "This used to be my playground." But that is neither here nor there.]

I miss the pinata brief. And while bad writing is everywhere, sometimes it lacks panache. I find myself wistfully sighing, "Where have all the pinatas gone?" I've tried, with some success, to recapture the joy it brought me. In my darker moments, I think that I will never see another piece of legal writing so melodramatic, so poetically overwritten as that.

But like that last swing at the pinata, after several whiffs, finally connecting when you thought you'd again be the laughingstock of all the kids at the party, this single sentence brings me hope:

"On November 29, plaintiff declared the legal equivalent of nuclear war by serving its first amended complaint on defendant."

So simple, so good.

And I'm sure you're wondering, What, what absolutely egregious legal maneuver, beyond all bounds of legal legitimacy, did plaintiff do? With the benefit of the entire (not that interesting) brief, I can enlighten you, gentle reader: Pretty much just serving a complaint. About real estate. Seriously.

Tuesday, February 19, 2008

There should be a cause of action for this.

These highly individualized claims are unique to each plaintiff.


Intentional infliction of unnecessary words.

Friday, February 1, 2008

And now he has inflicted it on us.

"He has inflicted this self inflicted wound on himself."